Spiders and Daffodils
by pmw
Summary: Ianto helps Jack, Jack helps Ianto


challenge : 10 , rating -nc17

Title: Spiders and Daffodils

Rating: nc17

Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, rest of team

Summary: Jack is missing and Ianto is not appreciated

Disclaimer: All characters belong to the BBC and RTD

Warnings: Arachnids

Notes: Not sure if I got the right rating - sorry I'm wordy

Today Ianto's day started with coffee.

Yesterday Ianto's day started with Jack in his bed.

His preference for starting the day was yesterday, not today.

As he made the coffee, and wondered where Jack was. Jack had said he would try and get to his flat last night, but it didn't happen. There was no text messages left, no notes. Ianto remembered waking up once, when Jack was suppose to have come over and he wasn't there, but there was a note left on Jacks pillow, (when did Jack have a pillow, or his side of the bed, I'll think about that latter). On that particular night with the note, Jack said he was coming over after a call with Unit. A weevil meant that he only arrived at Ianto's just to leave again, but Jack wrote a note, saying he really wished he could stay, but the run away weevil had to be dealt with. Ianto had smiled and thought about some weevil hunting they had done, with out a weevil in sight. they were the best 'weevil hunts'.

But there was no messages, and he hadn't seen Jack this morning, so what ever had kept him was still keeping him. Hope he is alright, and not dead somewhere.

The coffee was ready, he got out the cups, and made the coffees up the way they all liked them. Tosh was into flavours at the moment, so Ianto was enjoying the experimenting. His last flavouring was very popular, Chocolate, everyone liked that one. The new one was an almond flavour. I think she will like it. Owen was milk and 3 sugars. Not as bad as Gwen, her's was extra water to weaken it, four sugars and extra milk, coffee sacrilege.

He looked up again towards Jack's office. Still no Jack.

Ianto delivered the coffee, receiving a "thanks pet" from Gwen, "Thank you so much." from Tosh and a grunt from Owen. He had queried with them all, as he delivered the coffee, if they knew where Jack had got to. Gwen had no idea, Tosh checked the rift monitor, he was called out last night, but it was only a small spike, Owens response was as forthcoming as usual "Did you miss your morning shag, tea-boy?" Owens next coffee was going to be de-caff.

It back to his normal routine, clear, pickup, wipe, and all the things required to keep The Hub livable and not buried under rubbish. Ianto was sure the rest of them would end up like those demented people who died in there houses buried under 6 tones of rubbish that they hoarded for years and years, if it wasn't for him.

He sighed, not a clean as he would like, or anywhere as organized as he believed it could be, but the others just couldn't cope without some mess. He thought back on the time when it The Hub was organized, logical and everything in it place. Not one of them could find a thing. Jack had been amused and had stood in his office looking down on them. He had called Ianto up, kissed him lightly on the lips and said, it's fun to watch, but if we had to go to an alert in a hurry, it would take too long, let them be disorganized, that they can cope with." So Ianto left them to there 'organized' chaos.

All done downstairs he went up to the Tourist Office. It had been neglected lately. It was quite and he could get it organized without a certain Captain distracting him.

He turned over the closed sign, unlocked the door and set to work.

Three hours later, one tidy and organized Tourist Office and one lost Australian with a route planned for a trip of a life time around Wales. Ianto was happy with that, the fellow was friendly, had a great sense of humor and Ianto made sure he had all the good, clean and cheap places to stay.

Lunch Time beckoned, and still no Jack. Ianto was getting a bit worried.

Hopefully he hasn't found another warm body, worried Ianto. I didn't think it was just 'shagging' since he came back from his time with The Doctor.

He went down, got the lunch orders and went out to get them, instead of phoning for a delivery.

Ianto felt he needed to get away for a little while.

Maybe Jack was tired of him. What could I be to him, I'm just a 20th Century guy with not much experience. There must be plenty of guys, girls or whatever's out there, who would be more for filling, exciting, more skilled.

As he passed the small alley towards the Chinese Take Away, Ianto turned. He didn't know why but he had to go down there. He pulled out his stun-gun. He could sense something was wrong.

At the end of the alley was Jack, covered in a thin shinny threads, pinning him, the threads wound round him, under his clothes, and even, yuck, in his mouth. Jack looked un- conscious, Ianto hoped he was not dead.

Ianto checked, he was dead, just then Jack jerked awake and started to choke on the threads in his mouth. Horrified Ianto tried to get the threads out his mouth, but they seemed to have gone down this throat, into Jack's stomach. That is mega gross, thought Ianto. "It's okay Jack we've found you, I call the others well get you back to The Hub and, -what?" Jack was trying to say something as he choked, trying to point upwards. Ianto looked up, a large arachnid type beast, a good 4ft in body side and legs the same length was above them, slowly moving towards them.

Ianto cursed, "I've only the stun gun" he swore under his breath, quickly touched his ear piece, "Quick get to this location, alley next to Chinese Take away, large attacking spider" the beast started to spit silver threads, Ianto tried to get away from them but they seemed to have a life of their own, moving towards him like ... triple yuck, worms. He tried pull them off him but they were sticky and slimy and it wasn't working. He tried the stun gun. That stopped them. The arachnid turned to him and screeched in an ear piercing way. Ianto wanted to cover his ears it hurt so much, but he had to rescue his Captain.

He ran towards the arachnid and pulled the trigger on the stun gun.

Silence.

Jack gasped into life again, and again started to choke. Silently

The others arrived, Ianto didn't hear them arrive. Owen was yelling at him, but as he was facing Jack, trying to pull the threats from him he didn't hear.

Owen pulled at Ianto's shoulder, "Listen to me, moron, what's going on?" Ianto could see Owens mouth open and close but not hear a thing.

"Can't hear you." Ianto said, louder than necessary and quite tonelessly.

Owen looked up at Ianto and just got out a knife and started to cut away at the threads, pinning Jack down.

They got him free, and up on his feet. Gwen rush to get the car and Tosh was trying to get the threads off Jack with Owen, as Jack had died again.

Ianto just stood there, his head was so sore, he felt dizzy and he couldn't hear a thing.

When the SUV arrived they all piled in and rushed back to The Hub.

It had taken 5 hours to get all the threads off of and out of Jack, they had entered everywhere, and Owen wasn't too happy about this, every orifice. When he had found the threads in Jack's arse, he was horrified, so glad it was Jack and not him.

Ianto watched everyone. Not able to hear them, he provided coffee when they looked harassed, but tried to stay out of the way. He would not be able to stay with Torchwood if he was deaf, that meant retcon and the end of spending time with Jack.

When everything was settle down, and Jack was telling his story, well Ianto thought he was telling his story, there were large arm movements and what looked like large laughs to go with it. Jack always did that, laughed with the others when things hurt. He usually came to Ianto latter and whispered his fears and worries, after the lights were out and they were spooned together. The post-coital bliss allowing Jack to give voice to his fears and Ianto soothed him, with gentle words and caresses.

Ianto walked home, upset and nearly being run over by a car. Not being able to hear was also dangerous when crossing a road, he thought and being dizzy didn't help.

Ianto didn't know what to do with himself. The first thing he he did when he got home was to turn on some music. He looked at it, the lights were on showing a song was playing, but nothing was reaching him.

He sat down where he was on the floor in front of the couch and cried. Cried for the loss of his hearing, cried because no one checked him. Cried because he wouldn't be able to work for Torchwood, Cried because he couldn't help the Captain any more. Cried because he would be retconned. Cried as he was going to lose Jack.

Jack.

He would loose Jack.

Jack.

Jack who put him back together,

Jack who made makes him feel alive.

Jack who is just so good in bed.

Jack who he can talk to.

Jack who...

Jack who he loved.

Loved more than anything or anybody in the world.

Even more than Lisa.

Ianto felt like he was dissolving in the tears.

Ianto was lying on the floor, the tears had dried up, but he was still hiccuping and panting heavily. His throat was dry and sore, but he couldn't move, every-time he moved it felt like the worlds worst hangover . He felt as if his life, the life worth living, was over. No Jack.

He didn't hear the knock on the door, or the knock becoming banging, the worried call of his name or that his name was being shouted, almost hysterically.

Jack cursed, he'd left his keys at The Hub, he could hear Ianto inside, but he wasn't answering the door. Ianto sounded distressed. Jack took a few steps back and ran at the door. It smashed open easily.

Jack rushed in, and stopped when he saw Ianto on the floor. "Ianto, what's wrong?" no response. Jack walked around and lent down, Ianto was curled up. "Ianto, Ianto," yelled Jack. Nothing, Jack lend down and touched Ianto's shoulder. He jumped back in surprise as Ianto swung a fist at him.

Ianto was confused and disorientated. He looked up and saw Jack. "Jack, Oh Jack sorry, didn't hear you." Ianto snorted at that comment, and started to laugh, more than a little bit hysterically.

"Ianto, are you okay?" Jack was worried, this was not like his Ianto. To leave before the others, without telling him. Jack was getting very concerned. "Ianto talk to me, please, you're worrying me, what's wrong?"

Ianto could tell that Jack was worried.

"I can't hear." he stated. "The spider thing screamed when I stun gunned it, and now I ca.. can... can't hear."

Jack hugged Ianto to him. "It's okay" he crooned. "Why didn't Owen check you out?"

Ianto shrugged all he knew as he couldn't hear, his head hurt, but Jack was holding him.

Jack pressed his ear piece. "Owen, get back to The Hub, I'm bringing in Ianto, he was injured as well, yes, no it's can't wait, you didn't notice he was injured, you are coming in, I will see you there in 30 minutes."

Jack soothed Ianto, got him to have a quick shower, made him a tea with plenty of sugar and helped him dress. This made Ianto smile, as Jack helping him dress is like an oxymoron. He would do up a button or two, pout, undo them again and kiss the area that was going to be covered up. They had previously spend nearly two hours trying to get Ianto dressed. It was a favorite game. Jack's all time favorite though was 'undress Ianto'.

It only took 15 minutes to get him dressed in some comfortable jeans, t-shirt and hoodie. As he Jack laced up Ianto joggers, Ianto protested, "I can do up my own shoes Jack" "I know" replied Jack, "But I like to touch you and you need a bit of comforting"

Jack held onto Ianto's hand for the short walk back to The Hub, they arrived before Owen, and Jack was not pleased.

Owen arrived and they went down to Owen's lair.

"Okay tea boy what's wrong, you look fine, your not pouring out blood, your breathing, why couldn't this wait to the morning?"

Jack looked daggers at Owen. "He can't hear. Nothing, loud, soft, high pitched ultra sonic, we checked while waiting for you."

Owen was a good Doctor and was not annoyed that he missed that Ianto was injured.

"Why didn't you tell me Ianto?" groused Owen.

"I did, you were busy and then no one noticed me." he said in a flat voice.

Jack looked at Owen then Ianto. I notice Ianto, as he is hot, but do the others just dismiss him. I thought he became more a part of the team when I was away.

Owen looked at Ianto, shrugged his shoulders and started checking him over.

"Well it should be easy to fix, but just a bit of time." Owen finally said after spending an uncomfortable half hour checking Ianto over. Jack was constantly glaring at him, and he was feeling ashamed that he had forgoten Ianto.

"He's had some of the thread stuff in his ears but not enough to stop the noise the spider queen made, that seems to have inflamed all the ear canal and the fluids behind his ears, making them almost solid. I'm surprised Ianto was able to walk, his sense of balance would be off as well. The fluids seem to be starting to un-gel, it must be a protective measure to put off predators. Would work well, disorientate, make it so they can't hear each other and destroy their sense of balance. Jack you weren't affected because she only seemed to scream when there was more than one predator, and by this time your ears were totally full of the threads, protecting your ears, or it could have been being dead you reset, fixing your ears."

"So it will just be a bit of time and Ianto will be fine?"

"Yep, he will feel sore and have a killer head ache, but I'd say two to three days and he will be as right as rain."

Ianto was watching both of them, not understanding a word, but could tell it was good news as Jack's mood lightened and ended up with a wide grin. Jack turned to Ianto, gave a thumbs up sign and hugged him tight.

"I'll go write it down for him while you molest him, hey." snarked Owen.

After reading the prognosis, Ianto walked back to his flat with Jack, happy that this wasn't the end of them.

Ianto found out that night that sex with any of the senses missing is mind blowing. He knew when blind folded that the senses of touch is much stronger, but he didn't realize sound has a similar effect. Mind blowing even.

Ianto woke up, Jacks side of the bed was empty. Ianto sighed, rolled over and nearly fell out of bed. There on his side of the bed was a large bunch of Daffodils. Ianto saw a note propped up next to the flowers.

Had to go out, Hoix in the kebab shop, saw these and thought of you. Got back and a second one was at the chippy, had to go again, get well soon. - love Jack

Jack looked at Ianto as he looked at the note. He'd just got back in and Ianto was still not hearing clearly. He saw Ianto smile and thought. If the others don't appreciate him, I'll make sure he knows he is appreciated by me.

Jack stepped into Ianto line of sight and proceeded to show Ianto how much he appreciated his welshman.


End file.
